Then Simon Henseleit is gone
Created: 02/04/2022, 11:45 am
By: Paul Hopp
Training to be at the front of the competition: Simon Henseleit (right, here in 2021 at the Super League triathlon event in Munich) is preparing extensively for the coming season in southern Europe.
© Imago Images/Koepke
Simon Henseleit is on tour.
The triathlete is preparing for the upcoming season.
Before leaving, he completed a performance test - with amazing results.
Nuremberg/Steingaden – Top athletes like Simon Henseleit are used to living out of a suitcase.
Traveling to training camps and competition venues is part of it for them.
And yet the triathlete from Steingaden faced a special challenge this time, because he is now on the road for two months at a time in preparation for the coming season.
"And I still have no idea what to pack for it," he said - with a wink - just before he left for the airport.
The journey began for Henseleit last Sunday.
Fuerteventura, Mallorca, Girona - these are the stations where Henseleit wants to get in shape for competitions in changing training groups.
But he's already in a good mood, as a recent performance diagnostic in Leipzig showed.
In the Muskelmeisterei podcast, the 22-year-old reported on the procedure and his achievements.
The conclusion: Henseleit is satisfied, especially since he had significantly fewer training sessions in the run-up compared to last year's check.
Start of training again in December
The reasons for not starting again until December were a long 2021 season (his last European Cup appearance was at the beginning of November), a longer Bundeswehr course in Warendorf (Henseleit is a sports soldier) and an elbow injury (after a fall with his bike).
"A really nice program" was waiting for Simon Henseleit in Leipzig, as the DTU squad athlete said.
After the two days he was "quite through".
In addition to strength tests and medical examinations, the focus was primarily on his performance in "his" triathlon disciplines: swimming, running, cycling.
The swim was 4 x 400 meters.
He was supposed to complete the individual sections in different times (5:20 minutes/5:05/4:50/4:36), with a three-minute break in between.
"I have a feeling" about how fast he is in the water, reported Henseleit.
To check, he looks at the clock when turning, but overall he swam at the specified pace, down to the second.
At the 5:05 split, he said he had a lactate level of 2.1 (millimoles per liter) and a heart rate of 132 beats.
Performance test was satisfactory
"That's more in the basic area," said the tenth at the U23 World Cup.
For the fourth stage, on the other hand, the motto was: “Anything goes.” He swam the 400 meters in 4:37 minutes, came up with a lactate of 8.1 and a pulse of 174. In terms of “heart rate” he was “not reached the limit,” says Henseleit.
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The treadmill test was scheduled three hours later.
The Steingadener ran 5 x 3000 meters, with a one-minute break between units.
Henseleit started at 3:40 minutes per kilometer.
In the following splits, the mileage was reduced by ten seconds each.
In the middle stage (3:20) he had a lactate of 1.6 and a heart rate of 165. "I felt good." He completed the last three kilometers in 3:00 minutes per kilometer (4.9 lactate/190 Pulse).
Henseleit impresses with more economical running technique
The running “was really good.
It wasn't like the fight from the start," was Henseleit's assessment.
One reason is "a significantly more economical running technique".
The steps were shorter, the frequency higher than before.
"It's less of a strain on me," said the athlete, who reduced his weight by two kilos to 80.9 kilos compared to the previous year.
The next day we went on a bicycle ergometer.
And as part of a so-called step test, it was all about “exercising yourself to the full”.
Henseleit started at 160 watts, increasing the resistance by 30 watts every five minutes.
"I noticed my legs pretty early on," he said.
However, the bike was not exactly adjusted to his body dimensions.
In the end he rode the 430 watts for five full minutes, and he still rode the 460 watts for a minute.
The pulse was 195, 196 beats;
"There wasn't much more to do," says Henseleit.
All in all: "I'm satisfied." With his values "you can start something".
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